The South Caldwell Spartans improved to 4-0 in the Northwestern 3A/4A Conference with a 10-0 victory in five innings over Freedom on Wednesday night in Sawmills.

Starting pitcher Jacob Raby was masterful in the win. He threw all five shutout innings and allowed just three hits, while striking out 12. He struck out seven straight batters spanning from the third through the fifth inning. Nine of the final 10 batters he faced went down on strikes.

"That was a pretty impressive outing by Raby," said South head coach Jeff Parham. "His curve ball was real tight and it worked real well for him. We still got a ways to go. We're just going to keep working to get better."

The Spartans scored runs in four of the five innings, starting with two in the first. Brock Johnson scored the first run on a wild pitch. On the same play, a throwing error by the catcher allowed courtesy runner Seth Ingle to score and give South a 2-0 lead. Johnson reached base with a walk and Ingle was running for Brett Macchia, who reached on an error.

South Caldwell added three more runs in the bottom of the third. Raby led off with a bunt single and moved to second on a groundout by Tanner Parham. Johnson followed with a single before Macchia hit a two-run double to deep left center. Two batters later, Ingle, running for Macchia, scored on a sacrifice bunt by Bailey Dollar to extend the lead to 5-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, Hunter Church led off with a walk and Dylan Wingler reached on an error. Church came in to score on an RBI groundout by Parham. Two batters later, Macchia reached on an error that allowed Wingler to score to give South a 7-0 advantage.

The Spartans put the game away in the bottom of the fifth. Dollar led off with a walk and Wingler later doubled. Raby followed with a two-run single up the middle to make it 9-0. After Parham walked, Johnson hit an RBI single to score courtesy runner Tanner Green and end the game at 10-0.

South Caldwell will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when it travels across the county to take on West Caldwell.

The No. 3 seeded Myers Park Mustangs controlled from the opening tip, ending South Caldwell's playoff run with a 62-23 win over the Lady Spartans in the third round of the 4A state playoffs on Tuesday night in Charlotte.

South Caldwell senior wrestler Cameron Chapman was denied the right to compete for a regional championship and possibly a state championship after being disqualified from the 4A West Regional tournament last weekend.